Justice for Patrick McGail: Fix Ohio's Complicity Law
The Issue
He wasn't the shooter. Jason Sowers, who actually killed Nathan Wintrow in a 2013 robbery in Troy, Ohio, got 18 years to life, six years less than Patrick.
Jason received his sentence through a plea deal, while Patrick went to trial. That choice, not the facts of what he did, is largely why he ended up with more time than the person who actually pulled the trigger.
This was possible under Ohio's complicity statute, Revised Code 2923.03, which lets someone be charged and sentenced for murder as though they pulled the trigger themselves, even without a jury ever finding that they caused the death. A minor tried as an adult faces the same exposure as any adult codefendant, regardless of age or who actually held the weapon.
In 2022, a bill that would have fixed this, House Bill 665, was introduced and never even got a hearing. It hasn't been brought back since.
Patrick is now in his thirties, still at Ross Correctional Institution. He's earned a bachelor's and master's degree and is working on a doctorate, mostly without support from the system he's inside of, and at times against direct opposition from it. Before his current facility, he taught business, communications, and stock market courses to hundreds of fellow incarcerated students, was a founding member and later president of a Toastmasters club, and spent a decade tutoring adult basic education, GED, and college level coursework. He co-founded a program that connected more than 3,000 incarcerated people with their families. He's self-published seven books and now trains and fosters dogs through a program at Ross.
A new bill without a retroactive clause would do nothing for him or anyone else already serving time under this law as a minor.
Sign this to tell Ohio lawmakers that a child should never get more prison time than the one who actually committed the crime, and that people like Patrick deserve a chance to have their sentence reviewed.
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The Issue
He wasn't the shooter. Jason Sowers, who actually killed Nathan Wintrow in a 2013 robbery in Troy, Ohio, got 18 years to life, six years less than Patrick.
Jason received his sentence through a plea deal, while Patrick went to trial. That choice, not the facts of what he did, is largely why he ended up with more time than the person who actually pulled the trigger.
This was possible under Ohio's complicity statute, Revised Code 2923.03, which lets someone be charged and sentenced for murder as though they pulled the trigger themselves, even without a jury ever finding that they caused the death. A minor tried as an adult faces the same exposure as any adult codefendant, regardless of age or who actually held the weapon.
In 2022, a bill that would have fixed this, House Bill 665, was introduced and never even got a hearing. It hasn't been brought back since.
Patrick is now in his thirties, still at Ross Correctional Institution. He's earned a bachelor's and master's degree and is working on a doctorate, mostly without support from the system he's inside of, and at times against direct opposition from it. Before his current facility, he taught business, communications, and stock market courses to hundreds of fellow incarcerated students, was a founding member and later president of a Toastmasters club, and spent a decade tutoring adult basic education, GED, and college level coursework. He co-founded a program that connected more than 3,000 incarcerated people with their families. He's self-published seven books and now trains and fosters dogs through a program at Ross.
A new bill without a retroactive clause would do nothing for him or anyone else already serving time under this law as a minor.
Sign this to tell Ohio lawmakers that a child should never get more prison time than the one who actually committed the crime, and that people like Patrick deserve a chance to have their sentence reviewed.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on July 19, 2026